Establishing who is your perfect customer by going through your current customers. If a customer is good to deal with then look for more like them. 9 out of 10 times these customers will be aligned with your own company values. They think like you do. From this information, you can start to work out your target customer. Things to do:

• Make a list of potential businesses that will fit into what you offer
• What value will they gain from your business?
• What are their needs?
• Does your product or service fit into that need?
• Can you satisfy or fulfill that need?
• Continue to add other potential customers who fit into the profile

It is important to note that not all of your customers will be that perfect one. By profiling the good customers, you can find potential customers that are similar. Here are ways to do that:

Customer	What needs do they have?	What product or service fulfills that need?
Customer A	Need A	Product A, C
Customer B	Need B	Product B

The next step is to analyse your own products to see what will be able to fulfill these needs.

Your key Features and Benefits

Make a list of the key features and benefits that your products/services will offer this potential customer.

Product/Service	Features	Benefits
The name of the product	What are the features of this product	What benefits can be gained from this product

It is always good to make a list of the features and benefits as this will allow you to create any marketing documents that may be used in the selling and promotion of your products. The next step is to take these benefits and features and match them with the customer.

Customer Needs and Fulfilling Them

Now that we have established what we offer and why we offer it we can now match them with what the customer’s needs are. There is never a successful sale unless the product/service that you offer matches the needs of the customer. Keep doing this until the products are satisfying the needs of your target market. It is important to note that not all products will be perfect for every customer. If your product does not fill the need then do not offer it.

Customer	Need	Product to satisfy need	Benefit to the customer
Customer A	Need B	Product B	Will satisfy Need B by doing…

This process looks complicated but if you know your product and your market, and I know you do, then this is simply a matter of writing it down.

What have we learned

• Establish who is your perfect customer.
• Go through your current customer list and find out who that customer is.
• If this customer is good to deal with then it is a good idea to start to look for more like them.
• They will most times be aligned with your own company values. They think like you do.
• From this information start to design the target customer.
• Make a list of potential businesses that will fit into what you offer.
• What value will they gain from your company?
• What are their needs?
• Does your product or service fit into that need?
• Can you satisfy or fulfill that need?
• Continue to add other potential customers who will fit into the profile.
• It is important to note that not all of your customers will be that perfect one. By profiling the good customers you can find potential customers that are similar.